Protecting our youth?

On the way into work this morning, I listened to a brief discussion on the radio about The Golden Compass, a movie opening nationwide in theaters tonight. An adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials, the film is apparently receiving negative response from various religious groups, some of which have implemented petitions and boycots.

"The Catholic League wants Christians to stay away from this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books... Though the movie promises to be fairly non-controversial, it may very well act as an inducement to buy Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials. And remember, his twin goals are to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity. To kids."

This situation is ironic because every religion and spiritual group has access to the children of it's participants virtually from birth; who is protecting the children from their indoctrinating rhetoric? If kids are in fact ill-equipped to make decisions and develop opinions about religion, why expose them to it at all?